Substantial progress has been made in the pantyhose art since the issuance of U.S. Pat. No. 2,826,760 and in the various types and characteristics of textured yarns which include torque, set, edge-crimped, among other processes for imparting stretch and other characteristics. Additionally, various types of stockings and pantyhose having support or control characteristics have been developed of which the following are only representative: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,362,029; 3,547,128; 3,566,624; and 3,720,078, among others. The introduction of spandex yarns, covered and uncovered, knit and laid-in, have also been widely used for improving the support or control characteristics in undergarments, hosiery and pantyhose.
Furthermore, considerable advances have been made in developing various types of "non-run" or run-resistant circular knit fabrics whether throughout the entire sheer portion of the foot and leg or in selected portions, such as in the toe or heel or welt to resist runs in the fabric.
One of the primary objections in the conventional one-piece pantyhose garment is that when one of the leg portions develops a run or other defect in wearing, the entire garment usually must be discarded. Some attempts have been made to resolve this problem by providing individual or separate panty stockings, of various types, which enable the wearer to discard one of the stocking units and replace it with another stocking unit while still retaining the stocking unit that is satisfactory. U.S. Pat. No. 3,547,128 demonstrates an approach to satisfy this problem, among others.
It is an objective of this invention to provide individual seamless panty stocking units which may be worn in combination to form a combination pantyhose garment in which one unit may be discarded and replaced by another unit while retaining one of the units that is still satisfactory thereby reducing the cost of replacing an entire garment.
Another objective of this invention is to provide a combination pantyhose garment in which a pair of separate seamless panty stockings is to be worn by the wearer in which there is a double panty portion which incorporates overlapping and crossing bands of supporting fabric to achieve increased control in the panty portion.
Yet another object of this invention is the provision of a combination pantyhose garment in which separate and interchangeable seamless panty stockings are combined to form a garment in which the leg portion is knit of stretchable yarns that are sheer in appearance and a panty portion that may be knit of other textured yarns that are denser or heavier denier and in which elastomeric yarns are provided in selected areas to provide added support in the panty portion of the garment.
Other objectives and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the knitting art including the provision of selected run-resistant areas upon consideration of the detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawing.